On our ride from St. Louis Missouri to Joplin Missouri several of our MOC friends (via Facebook) suggested we needed to visit the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage Missouri. I like Precious Moments, but, have never been a collector. But, I could just tell this would be a photo op and blog fodder and admittance was free, so, Man and I decided to include it in our stop at Joplin. We were glad we did, we visited the last warm day (75 degrees) of the week and were able to walk around the gardens comfortably. I was right, it was shutterbug delight!
To see all the different figurines and statuary, well, it is fun and impressive and moving. Samuel J. Butcher (born in Jackson County, Michigan, about 45 minutes from our stick built home) is the artist. Here is the main entrance, with fountain (drained for the winter):
Here is a bronze statue decked out a bit for the holidays:
Even the doors to the chapel have Precious Moment children carved into them:
Inside the chapel are murals, I believe 15 of this size, many were too high for me to get a photo. I totally missed the ceiling, which I believe is painted with angels, I was concentrating so hard on the murals, I did not look up. (Note, no flashes were allowed.)
There are 15 stained glass windows, some of the windows contain over 1200 pieces of cut glass. They were designed by Samuel Butcher and cut out and constructed by his sister-in-law, Annie Cushman.
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| "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" |
There is a museum on the property, with examples of most, if not all the different Precious Moment porcelain designs It is overwhelming! There is also a gift shop (of course), where I spied this cutie, I love her title, "You Always Bounce Back Up".
No, I did not buy her. I did not buy this one either, but I, the non-collector of Precious Moments, was sorely tempted.
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| "I'm a Happy Camper" |
* The disclaimers, Precious Moments has copyrights, but, they did give us permission to take as many photos as we wanted (I took about 115). I claim no rights to Precious Moments copyrights, only to mine as photographer and writer, which are second to those of Precious Moments. Guess what I am saying, is, beware of what you steal and borrow from this blog, if I don't get cha, Precious Moments might! Or, as the say along most any nature trail, that reads, something like, "Look, Don't Remove".
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7 comments:
I'm not a Precious Moments collector, but found your information interesting. Especially liked the stain glass photos. The last photo is so you.
Thelma used to collect Precious Moments years back Still has a great collection. Run out of room for more. Love the camper. We had one designed about like that 13 Ft Shasta
Beautiful, and sweet. A friend of mine who passed away a few years ago used to be an avid collector. She would have loved this place. I had no idea it even existed. Thanks Carol for sharing this with us. Cheers! Jennifer
The stain glass windows would have had me oohing and ahhhing. Love the last one pic- too cute.
How on earth did you resist the "Happy Campers?"
We visited there about 15 years ago...it looks like it changed a lot! I do have the same picture of the stained glass window.
Ooh, cute, adorable, sweet... I am not a Precious Memories collector either but these are something else. I especially like the stained glass.
I'm with Barbara, the Happy Campers are so you. How DID you resist?
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